Analysis and optimization of biomass logistics

Nexterra系统公司设计并开发了将废弃生物质转化为热能和电能的气化系统。他们的一个项目是与不列颠哥伦比亚大学（UBC）合作，在那里安装了具有6兆瓦热能容量的生物质气化系统。为了到2020年实现温室气体减排目标，UBC正在考虑增加一个新的生物能源系统，将校园的供热扩大约3倍。新系统的安装将需要更多的生物质，而生物质储存能力将会降低。生物质供应的可靠性是校园供热的关键问题。虽然每年的生物质总量可能足以用于生物能源生产，但供应链的变化可能导致每日、每周或每月生物质交付的短缺。为了确保新生物质系统的顺利运行，必须每天以最低的成本向UBC交付数量合适、质量理想的木材生物质。因此，必须对UBC的气化和新系统进行供应链风险评估，并优化供应链以最大限度地降低交付成本。与Nexterra合作项目的目的是分析并执行UBC木材生物质供应链的风险评估，同时考虑交付生物质的质量，数量和成本。根据这些信息，将评估新系统所需的最小存储量。然后，将开发一个数学规划模型，以确定校园内的最佳存储大小和供应商的生物质流量，同时使供应链的总成本最小化。除了帮助Nexterra之外，拟议的项目将为UBC提供新的见解，这将有助于他们考虑他们的高资本投资。该项目的成果将有助于实现UBC雄心勃勃的温室气体减排目标。减排将有利于UBC、不列颠哥伦比亚省和加拿大向可持续社区和他们减缓气候变化的计划迈进。

Nexterra Systems Corp. designs and develops gasification systems that convert waste biomass into heat andpower. One of their projects was in collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC), where abiomass gasification system with 6 MW thermal energy capacity was installed. In order to achieve its GHGreduction objectives by 2020, UBC is considering adding a new bioenergy system to expand the heatproduction on campus by about 3 times. The installation of the new system would require more biomass, whilebiomass storage capacity would be reduced. Reliability of biomass supply is a key issue to provide heat oncampus. While the total annual biomass may be sufficient for bioenergy production, the variability in supplychain may bring shortage in daily, weekly or monthly delivery of biomass. In order to ensure the smoothoperation of the new biomass system, the right quantity of wood biomass with the desired quality at theminimum cost must be delivered to UBC every day. Therefore, it is essential to perform supply chain riskassessment of the gasification and new systems at UBC and optimize the supply chain to minimize thedelivered cost. The objective of this collaborative project with Nexterra is to analyze and perform a riskassessment of the supply chain of wood biomass at UBC while considering the quality, quantity and cost ofdelivered biomass. Based on this information, the minimum storage volume required for the new system willbe assessed. Then, a mathematical programming model will be developed to determine the optimum storagesize on campus and flow of biomass from the supplier while minimizing the total cost of the supply chain. Inaddition to helping Nexterra, the proposed project will present a new insight to UBC which will help them intheir deliberation concerning their high capital investment. The results of this project will be useful inachieving UBC's ambitious GHG emission reduction targets. Emission reduction will benefit UBC, BritishColumbia and Canada to move towards sustainable communities and their plans to mitigate climate change.